Hey, Simmons writing seen as im having a day off

im knackered. right now i am 230k into the journey but i'l start from the day 1.

i set of from Christchurch at about 11am after faffing about with postage of my didge and saying tarra to our now ex roomies Ad and Mike. About 5 mins into the journey i was lost. there streets are not in reality what they appear to be on the map but i sorted my self out and was off after a few confused mins. The fist day was ok, my arse didnt hurt and my legs where fresh but there was nowt interesting to write about as it was just one long straight road. i camped by the longest bridge in NZ and was bloody freezing. the sleeping bag i took with em as the smallest on in the shop and i had had is since home. but its comfortable temp was 12-15. it was colder that this + i thoughs i could get away with not having a roll mat.

day 2, contined along the long straight road against the wind. stopped in a town called Ashburton and bought s good sleeping bag and roll mat (warm everynight since). contiued along planing to get to a camping area in the palce called Hinds that i'd been told about. When i reached Hinds it turns out that it was a childrens playground so i gave up on that idea and seen as i wasnt tired continued on until dark when i stopped on a picknick area between the main road (highway 1) the busyest road in NZ. turns out its not a busy as Wigan road and a slept fine all night.

Now..... day 3. that was a bad one. started out amazing. got up and covered the short distance to Geraldine slowly in a relaxed way knowing that i had hours to spare due to my push on the night before. i stopped in Geraldine and phoned home to tell them i was ok and then ate a subway and plodded on into the mountain pass to Firlie (not big mountains, more like hilly pass) I had planned to stop as the campsite in the middle of this pass for the night. when i reached the point that the map said it was i turned of down a track that i can only describe as very downhill (alot of fun) to find that the campsite didnt exist and there was a 19th cetury lime kiln and a chicken that gave me a odd look in its place. i had no water or food and was in the middle of this pass. this was about 150 odd K's out of christchurch so i was quite tired anyway. so i had to do the last 32ks without water and without eating and the road only got more and more hilly. be the time it had gone dark and i was completly exauhsted and had 8ks to got i really couldnt be arsed. but as look would have it i was rewarded for teh 24ks od uphill will 8ks of blissful downhill. so i crawled into town at summat to 10pm having started my cycle at summat to 10am knackered.

day 4. woke up a utter mess. couldnt walk and had a banging headache. due to this i spent the day with 4 litres of water and lots of pasta and jelly beans on a sofa in the tv room watching the 7's in wellington. it was actaully great. loved it.

day 5. i pushed on for Lake Tekapo over another pass 'burkes pass'. this was far more hilly than the 1st pass but i made it and had a great tea and a long sleep.

day 6....... today. i had planned to stop here at lake tekapo as it is the nearest town to 1/2 way but seen as a stopped on day 4 i now wish i didnt seen as i did everything that there is to do in the town last night (exept see a comet that apparently looks ace from here as it was cloudy. oh well i'l try and see it when it comes back. "it doesnt come back for 85,000 years you say? balls!")

right... thats about it. 1/2 way and knackered.

laters xxxx